Team train trip to Battersea!

All back and fully rested after our half term break, we had a large squad outing to Battersea Park on Saturday...

We all met at the station, even Woolfy (I had texted her four times with the arrangements), and enjoyed the usual high standard of banter on the train. I’m not sure all the other punters did, however. Ali K and Ang were still hungover from the night before but otherwise the team was looking on form.

It was a late start at 3.15, which we had pushed back a little to allow Camilla as much time as possible to get over from playing for the 3s at Merton, which she did with a few moments to spare. Battersea Park was having its fireworks display that evening and so we were under pressure to finish on time.

It was a lovely warm and intermittently sunny/rainy day as we warmed up for push back. The team was in high spirits, we had good depth and lots of spare legs in the squad. We were going to lose two players at half time as they had to rush off for fireworks parties or Arsenal matches – where’s your commitment Bridget and Karen!? Word of the day was ‘fight’ as we all wanted to win to hold on to our second place in the league.
From push back we did our usual thing of dominating play for the first 20 by solidly attacking.

We were in their D lots but couldn’t find the goal. We started to try to force it by reverting to hit and hope hockey or playing it up the middle, which unsurprisingly didn’t bear fruit. They had a few breaks and dangerous-looking, speedy forwards. They made one of these count with a well worked overlap of our defence. Annoying as this was against the overall state of play.

At half time we were 1-0 down and frustrated that the score line wasn’t in our favour after playing some rather nice hockey. Kaz, who had come off due to a nasty cold, got our heads together with a sound analysis of the first half and a game plan to take back the match; keeping discipline and using the wings and triangles as we weren’t able to go through them. Again, we went out on the word ‘fight’ and really meant it this time. We didn’t want to lose.

The beginning of the second half was more of the same, with good Reigate play but no goals. Freya had a strop when asked to move into left half, swearing and throwing her stick around, so Kaz went on in her place – which surprised the rest of the team somewhat. However, to make up for this Freya managed to score in the last ten minutes to equalise. Phew!
Our shorts weren’t quite as good as normal, our press got a bit shabby as we tired and we crowded the goal on a few occasions but we did have Ali K on the post, Anna was constantly threatening and Freya, Rose (who now has a nasty astro burn on her knee from a sliding strike on goal. Impressive!), Hetti and Woolfy worked the right wing beautifully.

Harriet, Bridget and Ali K used good space on the left, which we need to build on as we move through the rest of the season. Ang, as usual, kept a solid midfield and distributed the ball into space.

We were using our fresh legs and the team was playing well together, with moments of pure champagne hockey throughout. We defended well and communicated despite the PA for the fireworks and the wind making it difficult to hear. We kept out all the shorts, with Camilla saving the direct strikes and Lucy, who had come on for Kaz at right back, taking out their injector. Lucy stayed at right back with Jess on the left for most of it and Sian, who was back from foreign parts for the week, came on for the last 15 to reinforce the defence. What we need to work on is making 50:50s and running on to loose balls. For this we need fitness girls! See you on Tuesday at training!?

So, we had pulled off a 1-1 draw in the last ten minutes and felt as if we’d been let off the hook. Great play though, girls, in what was a late game far from home. We packed up our bags and were escorted from the pitch by policemen who were desperate to clear the park ahead of the fireworks. We headed for the train, checking we had Woolfy with us at all times, and enjoyed a couple of ciders or beers and snacks as we wended our way back to Reigate in the dark.